Can't enter toolbox

Project Discussion
1

I was trying to enter a toolbox I created earlier. After attempting to enter it I get the following error:

    toolbox: failed to list containers with com.redhat.component=fedora-toolbox
    toolbox: container flips not found
    Use the 'create' command to create a toolbox.
    Try 'toolbox --help' for more information.

I then tried to create another container but then got the following error message
toolbox: failed to get RepoTag for base image fedora-toolbox:30
Then I deleted ~/.local/share/containers and was able to successfully create a new image again, but when I tried to enter it the cycle started over again. Is this a bug or is there something I can do to fix it?

EDIT: I should add I get no errors the first time I try to enter the container after creating one, but then get the above errors if I try to enter it again.

EDIT 2: Here’s what I get from running toolbox -v enter -c <container_name>

toolbox: resolved absolute path for /usr/bin/toolbox to /usr/bin/toolbox
toolbox: TOOLBOX_PATH is /usr/bin/toolbox
toolbox: Fedora generational core is f30
toolbox: base image is fedora-toolbox:30
toolbox: customized user-specific image is fedora-toolbox-chris:30
toolbox: container is flips
toolbox: checking if container flips exists
toolbox: container flips was created from image localhost/fedora-toolbox-chris:30
toolbox: checking if image localhost/fedora-toolbox-chris:30 has volumes for host bind mounts
toolbox: trying to start container flips
toolbox: creating list of environment variables to forward
toolbox: COLORTERM=truecolor
toolbox: DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus
toolbox: DBUS_SYSTEM_BUS_ADDRESS is unset
toolbox: DESKTOP_SESSION=gnome
toolbox: DISPLAY=:0
toolbox: LANG=en_US.utf8
toolbox: SHELL=/bin/bash
toolbox: SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/run/user/1000/keyring/ssh
toolbox: TERM=xterm-256color
toolbox: TOOLBOX_PATH is unset
toolbox: VTE_VERSION=5603
toolbox: WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-0
toolbox: XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=GNOME
toolbox: XDG_DATA_DIRS=/home/chris/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share/:/var/lib/flatpak/exports/share/:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/
toolbox: XDG_MENU_PREFIX=gnome-
toolbox: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
toolbox: XDG_SEAT=seat0
toolbox: XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=gnome
toolbox: XDG_SESSION_ID=2
toolbox: XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland
toolbox: XDG_VTNR=2
toolbox: created options for environment variables to forward
--env=COLORTERM=truecolor --env=DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/1000/bus --env=DESKTOP_SESSION=gnome --env=DISPLAY=:0 --env=LANG=en_US.utf8 --env=SHELL=/bin/bash --env=SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/run/user/1000/keyring/ssh --env=TERM=xterm-256color --env=VTE_VERSION=5603 --env=WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-0 --env=XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=GNOME --env=XDG_DATA_DIRS=/home/chris/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share/:/var/lib/flatpak/exports/share/:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/ --env=XDG_MENU_PREFIX=gnome- --env=XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000 --env=XDG_SEAT=seat0 --env=XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=gnome --env=XDG_SESSION_ID=2 --env=XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland --env=XDG_VTNR=2
toolbox: looking for /bin/bash in container flips
ERRO[0000] open /var/home/chris/.local/share/containers/storage/overlay-containers/2137b384db9e7959108f0b90a851596d31bc42ff72c3732ab1ed668c6927a771/userdata/conmon.pid: permission denied 
toolbox: /bin/bash not found in flips; using /bin/bash instead
toolbox: trying to exec /bin/bash in container flips
ERRO[0000] open /var/home/chris/.local/share/containers/storage/overlay-containers/2137b384db9e7959108f0b90a851596d31bc42ff72c3732ab1ed668c6927a771/userdata/conmon.pid: permission denied
2

Try sudo chown -R $USER ~/.local/share/containers/storage/overlay-containers.

EDIT: Apparently this caused some permissions issue with sudo, apologies for that.

A version that I believe should work better would be sudo find ~/.local/share/containers/storage/overlay-containers -name conmon.pid -exec chown $USER '{}' '; '.

4 Likes
3

Thanks! That worked for me. Wonder how the permissions got messed up in the first place though?

4

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Rootless podman can be a bit buggy sometimes, so I’m used to dealing with some of these weird issues and recognized this one.

5

This worked for me too, thanks!

I wonder what keeps causing it?

6

Good to know, I may just alias that command as “fix-toolbox” or something until it gets sorted out. I’ve found Aliases come in really handy for Silverblue, between flatpak command-line apps being a pain to type out and needing to go into toolboxes for certain apps.

7

Yep, it does seem to be an issue with libpod. Running multiple rootless containers in parallel with toolbox-like UID mapping results in "conmon.pid: permission denied" ¡ Issue #3187 ¡ containers/podman ¡ GitHub
moving back to an older version also seems to do the trick.

8

Btw, does sudo work inside toolbox after fixing permissions this way? When I got the same error on monday I was not able to use it.

9

I was able to use sudo inside the container no problem after the above fix. Installed packages in the container no problem and compiled a package. Even was able to run the built GUI application from inside the container afterwards.

10

Very old thread but I have the same problem. Just re-installed SB30 clean install (having fouled up the original) and now I get this error when starting a toolbox. It worked fine on my original install of SB30. I tried the find command recommended by @refi64 above but it failed with “missing argument to -exec”.

11

Oof I typo’d slightly but can’t seem to edit it anymore, the space after the semicolon shouldn’t be there (so instead of '; ' it should be ';").

That being said this issue has long since been fixed, you might want to open a new thread and see what running toolbox with -v says.